


Fall Down

by FujinoLover



Category: NCIS: New Orleans
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22009672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujinoLover/pseuds/FujinoLover
Summary: After almost two decades, with a beautiful daughter and an ongoing divorce, Hannah began to suspect that her soulmark had less to do with her first meeting with Ryan in New York and more to do with the miniature of the Liberty Statue that stood on Tammy’s desk.
Relationships: Tammy Gregorio/Hannah Khoury
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	Fall Down

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the song playing during their lesbian bar scene.  
> Sofia and Hector Campos belong to _Person of Interest_.

They were swarmed with cases back to back for the last couple of weeks. While the crimes itself had been solved, it left mountains of paperwork to be done. Hannah was glad she finished her lunch early when Roy came in to hand a brown envelope for her. She wasn’t even surprised to see the divorce papers in it, sent by Ryan, not yet signed. He wanted her to sign it first—see if she would do it at all, because for over a decade of their marriage she was always the one who called the shot.

Hannah let the papers lay over her desk, leaning back on her chair as she felt a headache coming. She could do with a strong cup of warm tea. The caffeine kick was crucial in dealing with Ryan’s passive-aggressiveness that was bordering on pettiness lately. Sometime along the course of their marriage, somewhere between the consulting and the next undercover mission that never ended, he began bringing her shortcomings every time they argued. That was long before their separation, and it only got worse since she moved to New Orleans. Even if they still loved each other to hang on their marriage and for Naomi’s sake, it was obvious that he was too hurt to ever let the blaming pass. It would be unfair for her and the last thing she wanted was for her daughter to grow up with that kind of unhealthy relationship as example.

Sighing to herself, Hannah started leafing through the papers, reading the required information she would have to fill and marking the section to sign. She was well halfway through it when the question of soulmark brought her attention away from the papers and across the room. Sitting on the bottom of the lamp on Tammy’s desk, the Liberty Statue that was somehow always on her peripheral yet again grabbed her entire focus.

Hannah must have dazed off for quite some time, because when she snapped out of it, it was due to Tammy calling her name. She was back from her venture to the kitchen in a hunt for caffeine and was already sitting behind her own desk, a steaming cup of coffee sat next to her keyboard. Hannah smiled at her, which then widened when she noted belatedly that there was her own blue mug on her desk, filled with tea. Toying with the string before wrapping both hands on the mug, and finding that it was the perfect temperature, she sent another grateful smile at Tammy before taking a sip.

“Thanks. I really need this,” Hannah said.

If Tammy noticed the divorce papers, which she did, she didn’t mention it, but the concern was clear on her face. “You okay?” she asked, voice floated low in the quiet of the office.

Hannah didn’t even bother to gather the papers. Instead, she glanced at the Liberty Statue before meeting Tammy on the eye. “I will be.”

Tammy took a moment longer to study Hannah’s expression, long enough to make her squirm for a reason that was _not_ feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny of her profiler coworker. It was only when Tammy found whatever it was that she was looking for that she said, “You know you got us.” She turned in time with Sebastian entering the office. “Right, Sebastian?”

Sebastian, caught off guard, halted. “Uh...” He stared at his housemate, who nudged her head on Hannah’s direction with a look that said he would be very sorry if he didn’t agree with whatever she just said. Ultimately, it was after he turned to Hannah that he decided to go along with Tammy. Whatever it was that involved the senior agent, it couldn’t be something worse than getting his ass kicked later. “Uh...yeah. Of course, yep.”

Tammy nodded with a grin of her own, loosening on the threatening glare and Sebastian let out a relieved sigh as he took a seat behind his desk. Tammy looked over at Hannah once again, still smiling, before diving back to her dwindling hill of reports. Hannah returned the gesture, the smile stuck on her face even as she gathered the divorce papers and continued on her own reports. She was going to finish her job first, sign the divorce papers later, and tell Tammy about her soulmark someday soon.

* * *

It was months before anything happened. In Hannah’s defense, she was much better at making quick, tough calls on the field than about her personal relationships. Days after the beginning of her divorce process, she had decided to play it safe. First by gathering information about the miniature. Her online surfing revealed it to be made in China and had sold thousands over the years, but then again there was only one that had been constant in her immediate vicinity for almost a year. That had to mean something. Plus Patton, who must have seen her search history because it was Patton and nothing could get past him, started giving her this look that only made her felt uneasy.

Abandoning her failed verification attempt, she then tried to find Tammy’s mark and see if it was related to hers before jumping the gun. After a few awkward moments of Tammy catching her checking her out, she realized that Tammy had marks on her arms and God knows where else—any of them could be her soulmark. There was no way of knowing unless she asked her, which was something she wasn’t planning to do anytime soon.

By the time her divorce was finalized, she had decided to just let it be. Soulmates are supposed to be fated to be together anyway. Fate, which unfortunately, hadn’t made Tammy found out about her mark either. She had never been anything less than fully clothed around her, no matter how much the idea of doing the opposite had filled her thought for the past months. It wasn’t like she could get topless in Tammy’s presence by accident. Or so she thought.

It was during the peak of summer when Hannah got her turn to go undercover as a bodyguard. They were after an up-and-coming influencer with hundred thousands of online followers. He was suspected to have talked his girlfriend, a Marine Captain’s daughter, to commit suicide. He was to attend the opening of a new club in town, where they planned to get a recorded confession at. They had tried to get an in on the club, even went as far as threatening the owner for obstruction of justice, but to no avail. Invitations were limited and none of them happened to be twenty-something socialite or had any kind of celebrity status.

They were stuck, until Sebastian took the initiative to scour the internet, which might or might not involve hacking some airlines, to find any incoming people who was important enough to get invited on last minute. Sofia Campos, daughter of a Brazilian diplomat Hector Campos, happened to be flying over from New York City on the very same day as the opening.

Hannah brushed up her Portuguese, knowing it would be a bit hard to get the young woman to agree to help them when no one was supposed to know that she was going to be in New Orleans in the first place. It indeed was, until Sofia learned about the dead girl. Club party wasn’t her kind of scene anymore, but she knew a thing or two about stupid boyfriends getting their girlfriends in harm’s way and was more than willing to play along. Thus when Friday rolled around, Hannah picked her up on the airport. Apparently, Sofia was fluent in six languages, giving Sebastian quite the headache trying to keep up with her conversation with Hannah that cycled through some of those languages in rapid speed.

Mere seconds after Sofia posted a selfie in a café in the French Quarter, with the caption asking about a good hanging place in New Orleans, her feed was flooded with suggestions and invitations. One of those was from their target club. Even better, the suspect himself commented that he would be looking forward to her in the party. Line, hook, and sinker.

When their request to attend the party was denied, Tammy and Sebastian—mostly Sebastian tweaking employees’ record—had worked their way into the waiters’ station. Their covers had no way of getting on their mark in the VIP area, but they would be close enough for backup. Soon after the party began, they found a huge problem that would jeopardize the whole operation.

“A what?”

“ _Faraday cage._ ” Patton’s voice floated through the hidden earpieces. He was monitoring them outside from his van since he had an odd feeling about it. It was too easy and in their line of work, that just never happened. “ _Metal rebars or wire mesh in the walls. Nothin’ can come in or outta that room._ ”

Tammy exchanged a look with Sebastian over the trays of colorful drinks on their hands. No wonder it had been radio silence on Hannah’s side since she entered the VIP section with her charge. They weren’t really worried about her or Sofia’s safety, but all of their hard work to get a confession would be naught without an actual recording.

“ _I’ve got a TRRS mic Hannah can plug on her phone to record him,_ ” Patton added, knowing they needed to get a clear confession and Hannah shoving her phone in front of the suspect wouldn’t do. “ _She gonna need to come out for it._ ”

“Sebastian, go get it.”

“But—“

“Just go get it.”

“Okay, okay.”

In the meantime, Tammy hung around the outside of the VIP area in hope of catching Hannah. She and Sofia were quite deep in the crowd, but somehow she caught Tammy’s eyes and understood her motioning at the bathroom. She arrived first, Tammy having to wait for Sebastian to come back with the mic from Patton and telling him to keep an eye on the prize before going after Hannah.

Neither woman talked, mindful of other people in the restroom. With a hand on the small of Hannah’s back, Tammy herded her into the nearest empty stall and locked the door behind her. No one batted an eye at the two women going into the same stall. Although considering the other women in the bathroom was a group making video of their sick friend and a couple making out against the sink, their little escapade wasn’t too odd of an occurrence nowadays.

Still, Hannah had to get her head out of the gutter. “They jam our comms?” she asked, voice tight. The little space wasn’t helping her at all.

“Patton said it’s some kind of cage creating the jam.”

“Wire meshes in the plaster or concrete walls are known to mess with phone signals.” Hannah nodded mostly to herself. With a club named _Blind Spot_ that bragged over its super private VIP area, they really should have seen this coming. “We might not get another chance if we don’t get a confession today.” The suspect was set to make a deal to endorse a chain of resorts next, which would take him overseas.

“Don’t worry,” Tammy said as she pulled out the mic from her apron’s pocket. She could have passed it while doing her round around the VIP room, but knew that Hannah would need to be in the bathroom to put it on anyway. It was better to save their time by doing that while also giving an update to Hannah. “Patton’s saving the day.”

Hannah took mic, plugged it onto her phone jack before putting it back in the pocket of her pantsuit. Due to the weather and special request from Sofia, as to not stick out like a sore thumb amongst the younger crowd, her suit jacket had to take the day off. It left her with a navy polo that she had to tug up to sneak the wire along her torso, aware of Tammy taking a step back and ended up bumping the door because there wasn’t much space left.

Hannah was never a shy person, despite sometimes feeling a bit awkward due to her height. However, when she looked up after clipping the mic between the buttons, she wished she had at least given Tammy a chance to step out before baring any skin. Or more specifically, baring her torso where a palm-sized caricature of the Statue of Liberty, very much like the miniature on Tammy’s desk, splayed dark over her right ribs.

“Is that...“ Dark eyes snapped up at Hannah, brows furrowed. “You’re really my—“

Hannah followed her line of sight and cursed at fate’s bad timing. “We’ll talk about this later,” she said, fixing her shirt. She touched Tammy’s arm with an assuring smile, this time being the one leading them out.

“ _Uh, guys..._ ” Sebastian’s voice broke through their earpieces, enough to startle them back to the situation at hand and that their friends had been able to listen to them all along. “ _He just made a move on Sofia._ ”

* * *

The case was wrapped with a neat little bow. Thanks to a few drinks and some innocent flirting from Sofia, the suspect bragged about how great he was on getting rid of his troubled ex-girlfriend with just some convincing words, with Hannah standing right behind their seats. It was a straight processing from there on. Patton had gone home after driving Sofia back to her hotel afterwards and Sebastian had left after Tammy told him that there was going to be some girl talk he shouldn’t take part on. Much later that night, or rather early the next morning, Pride bid a goodnight, leaving only Hannah and Tammy in the dining table that suddenly felt all too small.

Hannah wanted to get up to make tea, preferably scalding hot and light, since her current one had gone cold over time and steeped for too long that she was sure it would give her more jitter. However, Tammy’s dark eyes pinned her down on the seat, not giving her a chance to stall the inevitable any longer. So Hannah drank her tea and waited.

“When did you find out?”

“It caught my eyes the moment I stepped into the office,” Hannah said, recalling the miniature on Tammy’s desk as the first item she touched when she got into the building. She had noted the semblance, but not yet convinced that she would stay long enough in New Orleans for it to mean anything. “But it was after that case, the sailor with peeled off soulmark and then my divorce coming through that I really think about it.”

“That was six months ago,” Tammy deadpanned.

“I wanted to be sure.”

The thing about soulmark was, it is vague enough that everything is up to each person’s interpretation. It is common to have more than one soulmate in a lifetime and the connection can range from best friends to work wives to life partners—it can be anything. It took Hannah a long while to understand that she wanted it to be _everything_ with Tammy.

“Why didn’t _you_ tell me?”

“You were my boss, and you were technically still married,” Tammy said in all seriousness, because soulmates or not, there were lines she wouldn’t cross. “And then you are my friend, who is _not_ a lesbian,” she added, mocking and knowing Hannah must have realized her deliberate use of unspecific gender whenever they talked about romantic relationship. “I don’t wanna mess this up.”

Hannah nodded. She got how complicated it must have been for Tammy. “What’s yours then?”

She had been dying to ask. Ryan’s apple correlated with her Liberty at that time, because perhaps they were meant to be soulmates then. Tammy, however, took one look at her mark and became so sure that they were soulmates, so hers must be more obvious than Hannah’s was.

“This mug,” Tammy said with a not-so-amused laugh, tapping the side of Hannah’s blue mug. “With teabag string hanging over the rim. When I was a teen, I thought my soulmate was going to be British. Kinda told everyone about it.”

Tammy’s ease made Hannah laugh, the kind that was light and came easy with the right person. She grasped her hand over the table, enjoying the fact that she could do that from now on, and _more_ , once they made sure they were on the same page with what they wanted from this connection.

“Are you disappointed?”

“Depends.” Tammy pulled back from the hold and Hannah missed the contact already. “You’re good with languages, how about accents?” she asked, intertwining their fingers instead.

The playful question evoked another laugh as Hannah, who really couldn’t help herself, squeezed Tammy’s hand. “Where is your mark?”

Tammy smirked. “Well, you gotta find that out for yourself.”


End file.
